When it comes to addressing issues of gender equality in education, one organization that is working to educate, organize and empower their communities is Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). Established in 1971, NBJK aims to create a just society where everyone’s needs are met without discrimination or exploitation (NBJK, n.d. a). NBJK’s programs are implemented throughout India and encompass key development areas like health, education, agriculture, economics, and civil rights (NBJK, n.d. b). NBJK characterizes its approach to development “as a liberating force for achieving social justice, economic growth, and self-reliance” (NBJK, n.d. a). Their diverse portfolio of programs has allowed NBJK to carry out targeted interventions in rural communities that address multi-dimensional national issues locally. One of NBJK’s most successful programs is focused on improving gender equality and girls’ education.

In India, the underperformance of girls in education can be attributed to a number of factors, including social stigma, poverty, safety, cost, distance, and child marriage (NBJK, n.d. c). For example, in the eastern state of Jharkhand, where NBJK is based, an estimated 45% of girls drop out of primary school, and that number is higher in rural areas, where around 85% of girls drop out (NBJK, n.d. c). These competing factors contribute to a vicious generational cycle where young girls drop out of school and fail to reach their full potential. NBJK sees working at the grassroots level as a pathway to transforming gender in education through multi-stakeholder engagement with international organizations, local schools, parents, and students (Gupta et al., 2002, p. 33).

In collaboration with UNICEF, NBJK’s Jaagriti Initiative was launched to change conceptions of gender norms amongst students, parents, and teachers. The Jaagriti Initiative tackles gender equality in education by adopting a transformative approach and adapting it to the individual, family, and community (UNICEF. 2020. p.16). The initiative was administered in 100 schools across India and involved three components:

1. Transformative gender education:
   • Integrating gender into the curriculum creates an environment for teachers and students to critically examine and discuss inequalities associated with “gender roles, norms, and dynamics” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2). The curriculum covers “understanding gender, productive and reproductive roles, double work burdens, gender-based discrimination and violence, patriarchy and taking action for change” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). This broad spectrum of knowledge helps build a foundation of awareness and action.
2. Gender-focused co-curricular activities:
   • Biweekly extracurricular activities supplement the material learned in school and reinforce their newly acquired knowledge through various activities that promote community-building and learning (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By combining education with action, the Jaagriti Initiative helps establish new norms that support gender equality in a positive environment (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).
3. Family engagement:
   • Recognizing that families significantly impact the norms students develop, the Jaagriti Initiative engages families through monthly sessions to share the materials students learn in school (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). By sensitizing parents, the Jaagriti Initiative changed parents’ position from observers to participants of change (UNICEF. 2020. p.68). Parental outreach helps “transform the underlying social structures, policies, and broadly held social norms that perpetuate gender inequalities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.2).

The Jaagriti Initiative draws its strength by aligning itself with the transformative gender approach to education. This approach is based on the reshaping of the education system and curriculum to uproot gender inequality by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which [reproduce] gender” (Locke et al. 2022. p.3). By leveraging the school environment, the Jaagriti Initiative promotes a transformative solution to addressing gender inequalities that engages not only students and teachers but also those outside the walls of a classroom. 

As a result of their efforts, in 2021, NBJK engaged 10,655 students through their education program (NBJK. 2022. p.3). In evaluating the Jaagriti Initiative’s impact, NGJK found that “65% of girls and 74% of boys reported a greater awareness of gender biases, stereotyping, discrimination, and inequality” (UNICEF. 2020. p.24). Moreover, compared to baseline data, the Jaagriti Initiative saw the most significant changes in attitudes among boys and fathers. Boys and fathers experienced a 16% and 11% shift in attitudes when asked if “boys are naturally better than girls in studies” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). Additionally, boys and fathers reported a 21% and 8% change in attitudes when asked, “it’s more important to educate boys than girls” (UNICEF. 2020. p.25). By positioning gender equality as a primary education component, NBJK, through its Jaagriti Initiative, has begun laying the groundwork for an “inclusive and socially just education system” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4). Furthermore, by engaging various stakeholders, NBJK has expressed its commitment to achieving gender equality beyond the classroom and into the larger community by shifting “norms, practices, and structures, which reproduced gender-based inequities” (Locke et al. 2022. p.4).

References

Gupta, R. Whelan, D. & Allendorf, K. (2022). Integrating Gender into HIV/AIDS Programmes. Department of Gender and Women’s Health. (pp. 1-53). World Health Organization.

Locke, K.; Choo, L.W. and Shah, R. (2022). Toward Transformative Gender Education Programming. Center for Education. (pp. 1-6). USAID. https://www.edu-links.org/sites/default/files/media/file/Toward_Transformative_Gender_Education_Programming.pdf

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). (2022). Annual Report 2021-22. (pp. 1-38). https://nbjk.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Annual-Report-2021-22.pdf

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). (n.d. a). Mission and Vision. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://nbjk.org/mission-and-vision/mission-and-vision/

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). (n.d. b). Our Work. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://nbjk.org/our-work/

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). (n.d. c). Girl’s Education. Retrieved February 28, 2023, from https://nbjk.org/education-and-homeless-child/girls-education/

Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra (NBJK). (2014). Young primary school children in India [Photograph]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/NbjkIndia/photos/a.849005758449832/890612230955851

UNICEF. (2020). Advancing Positive Gender Norms and Socialization through UNICEF Programmes: Monitoring and Documenting Change. Executive Summary. (pp. 1-12). Oversees Development Institute. https://www.unicef.org/eca/media/16456/file/Advancing_Positive_Gender_Norms_and_Socialization_through_UNICEF_Programmes%3A_Monitoring_and_Documenting_Change_%7C_Executive_Summary.pdf

Whereas learning is defined as a process of cognitive change through experience, education takes on a more formal and structured approach to acquiring “knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values” (Wagner, 2017, p.55). Education is designed to promote learning in a formal environment, the classroom, to fulfill the learning standards established by local, national, and international education authorities while being implemented by teachers. The resulting educational curriculums are the foundation for standardizing learning practices focusing on subjects like language arts, history, and mathematics (Wagner, 2017, p.58).  The goal of creating quality and accessible education is to support the “basic learning needs of every person” (Wagner, 2017, p.63). Thus, education aims to instill a particular type of understanding, capacity, and beliefs to cultivate individuals, of various ages, with a shared comprehension of the world around them.

Primary education is one of the first opportunities for young children, ages 5 to 11, to start building vital skills which influence learning practices that guide them for the rest of their academic and personal lives. At this level of education, young school-aged children learn life skills that include reading, writing, communication, and relationship-building through various teacher-led activities and subjects (UNESCO, 2011, p.30). Curriculum-based learning is the primary method for young students to acquire these skills within the formal classroom environment, where students construct, test, and refine different learning practices with their peers (Bakken et al., 2017, p.267). The purpose of primary education is to harness the developing minds of young students, engage with others, and develop positive learning experiences.

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) identified achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls as one of its seventeen sustainable development goals for 2030 (McGrath, 2018, p.198). Known as Goal 5, achieving gender equality is focused on addressing deeply-rooted gender disparities that prevent women and girls from reaching their full potential. Barriers like employment, wage gaps, access to social services, violence, and discrimination all shape how this goal is achieved and what tools are leveraged to do so (UNDESA, n.d.). Furthermore, the UN sees men and women as partners in creating an environment where everyone can benefit from the outcomes that development and furthering human rights produce (UNDESA, n.d.). One method that can be used to accomplish Goal 5 is education.

Educational settings are prime locations where ideas around gender are often reproduced and reinforced through “classroom practices, teachers’ attitudes and expectations,” and interactions with fellow peers (Stromquist, 2007, p.30). Thus, administering gender equality efforts at the primary school level has the potential to transform and interrupt gender “roles, behaviors, and expectations” that can go beyond the walls of a classroom and influence society (Bajaj & Pathmarajah, 2011, p.52). The phenomenon this effort seeks to leverage is gender socialization. At the primary school level, gender socialization is a process of internalization through which young students learn “what norms are, understand why they are of value …, and [accept] the norms as [their] own” (George et al., 2020, p.7). 

Now by understanding the role of gender socialization in a primary school environment, educational stakeholders, like schools and teachers, can employ gender-responsive pedagogies to influence how norms shape identity and value development for boys and girls while providing them with the tools “to start thinking critically about socially ascribed gender roles and stereotypes” (UNESCO, n.d.) Gender-responsive pedagogies leverages the “specific learning needs of girls and boys” to interrupt the production of detrimental gender norms through the delivery of gender-aware activities like “role-playing, group discussions, case studies, skits” and experiential learning (FAWE, 2006, p.9). From this pedagogy, teachers can foster empowering “social interactions [that] allow children to develop relationships with other children and, as children grow, these relationships develop from friendships based on shared activities to relationships based on shared ideas and shared thinking (Bakken et al., 2017, p.266). The construction of shared ideas through activities creates an alternative understanding of gender norms which critically positions primary schools to offer alternative gender understandings that can go beyond the school environment and impact students’ communities on a larger scale.

References

Bajaj, M., & Pathmarajah, M. (2011). Engendering Agency: The Differentiated Impact of Educational Initiatives in Zambia and India. Feminist Formations. 23:3. (pp. 48-67). The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Bakken, L., Brown, N., & Downing, B. (2017). Early Childhood Education: The Long-Term Benefits, Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 31:2. (pp. 255-269). Taylor & Francis.

George, R. Marcus, R. & Samman E. (2020). Advancing Positive Gender Norms and Socialization through UNICEF Programmes: Monitoring and Documenting Change. (pp. 1-70). UNICEF.  

McGrath, S. (2018). Ch 8 Education and sustainable development – a new development agenda. Education and Development. (pp. 196-219). Taylor & Francis.

Stromquist, N.P. (2007). The Gender Socialization Process in Schools: A Cross-National Comparison. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008, Education for All by 2015: will we make it?. (pp. 1-40). UNESCO.

The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). (2006). Gender Responsive Pedagogy. Biennale Meeting on Education in Africa. (pp. 1-23). Association for the Development of Education in Africa.

UNDESA. (n.d.). Description. Gender equality and women’s empowerment. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://sdgs.un.org/topics/gender-equality-and-womens-empowerment 

UNESCO. (n.d.). SDG Resources for Educators – Gender Equality.  Retrieved February 18, 2023, from https://en.unesco.org/themes/education/sdgs/material/05

UNESCO. (2011). International Standard Classification of Education: ISCED 2011. International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). (pp. 1-84). UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Wagner, D.A. (2017). Ch 3 Learning as Development. Learning as Development: Rethinking International Education in a Changing World. (pp. 54-77). Taylor & Francis. 

Wicks, B. (2018). Playing in mud and streams is the best thing [Photograph]. Unsplash. United Kingdom. https://unsplash.com/photos/iDCtsz-INHI